Source: Medscape

Cardiovascular risk did not drop significantly over 3 years with intensive statin therapy, compared with a standard statin regimen, in a randomized trial that entered only dyslipidemic patients with diabetic retinopathy but no history of coronary disease, according to a report in Medscape.

In the Japan-based EMPATHY trial with >5000 patients, reduction in risk of a wide-ranging cardiovascular primary end point was 16% (P=0.15) for statin therapy to an LDL-C target of <70 mg/dL, compared with a target range >100 but <120 mg/dL.

On the other hand, the risk of cerebral infarction, a secondary end point, fell by nearly half (P=0.02) in the group with the lower LDL-C target, Dr Hiroshi Itoh (Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan) reported at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2017 Congress.

And in a post hoc analysis limited to patients in either study arm who, on average, actually achieved their LDL-C targets, risk of the primary end point fell by 52% (P=0.007).